The constitution of risk communication in advanced liberal societies

This article aims to bring to the fore some of the underlying rationales that inform common conceptions of the constitution of risk communication in academic and policy communities. ‘Normative’, ‘instrumental’ and ‘substantive’ imperatives typically employed in the utilisation of risk communication are first outlined. In light of these considerations a theoretical scheme is subsequently devised leading to the articulation of four fundamental ‘idealised’ models of risk communication termed the ‘risk message’ model, the ‘risk dialogue’ model, the ‘risk field’ model and the ‘risk government’ model respectively. It is contended that the diverse conceptual foundations underlying the orientation of each model suggest a further need for a more contextualised view of risk communication that takes account not only of the strengths and limitations of different formulations and functions of risk communication, but also the underlying knowledge/power dynamics that underlie its constitution. In particular it is hoped that the reflexive theoretical understanding presented here will help to bring some much needed conceptual clarity to academic and policy discourses about the use and utility of risk communication in advanced liberal societies

An empirical analysis of communication flow, strategy and stakeholders' participation in the risk communication literature 1988–2000

Risk communication during the years has shown its vitality and has proved its importance as a field of research. This article provides a brief record of the development of risk communication in the environmental and technological domain by examining some of the trends resulting from the analysis of the theoretical and empirical literature in the field, as it is available through scientific journals. In total, 349 peer‐reviewed articles published between 1988 and 2000 and listed in the ISI Web of Science databases were analyzed. The theoretical perspective that we use is that of control mutuality, which emphasizes the interaction between the parties in the risk decision‐making process and their mutual influence, rather than simply unidirectional control of one stakeholder over the other. It echoes the democratic perspective, but also considers the rationality of the technical standpoint.\ud \ud The results indicate that over the whole period there is an increase in published articles on risk communication. As expected, we found a gradual decrease in the articles referring to a one‐way flow of risk communication and an increase of those concerned with two‐way communication. We also observed a gradual increase in the articles referring to stakeholder participation in risk decisions in the last period. No differences were found with respect to risk communication strategy

The Development of Risk Communication : An Empirical Analysis of the Literature in the Field

This article describes the development of risk communication in the environmental and technological domain by systematically analyzing the literature as it is available through scientific journals. In total, 349 articles published between 1988 and 2000 were analyzed, with three research questions in mind: How can we characterize the risk communication literature? Do trends exist in risk communication literature? and What do scientific indicators tell us about the nature of the published papers on risk communication? The articles were sampled from the online databases ofWeb of Science. Results indicate that risk communication currently is dominated by a few important writers from the Western world and one very influential journal, and that desk research/narrative essays are published most frequently. This article also observes a steadily climbing number of publications, scientists from various backgrounds, and identifiable nodes of high production. Several recommendations for future developments in risk communication are made. \u